The invention relates to underwater tow cables, and more particularly to the reduction of vibration of the cable, referred to as "strumming" that is used for towing various instruments by surface vessels. Prior art examples of the efforts to reduce strumming provide solid streamlined hydrofoil-shaped segments along the cable such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,020, but this is intended to be towed almost vertically, i.e., at a sharp angle to the flow direction. Other examples in the prior art use flexible fairings which ranged from flag-types of various widths, exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,895,595 and 3,472,196, to ribbons or streamers shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,595, to fins shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,514, and to thrums and hair-like fairings exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,368,514, 3,472,196 and 3,440,991 all assigned to the Government. Still another type of fairing uses a wire or plastic extrusion that forms a helical ridge or ridges along the tow cable. The disadvantages of these fairings are that some are effective only with cables towed at a sharp angle to the flow say over 20 degrees, but are not effective with cables towed at a small angle to the flow, typically 20 degrees or less. In particular, the solid hydrofoil is no longer streamlined to the flow, and the flag-types tend to fold over. The ribbon and hair-like fairings cause handling and storage problems resulting from reeling and unreeling them over rollers, sheaves, and winches. Such handling reduces the life of the fairings because many elements are ripped off the cable. The hydrofoil-faired cable is extremely cumbersome to handle and store. Also the helical fairing has been found to be quite dependent on the angle of flow, which obviously can vary considerably.